i83r.J SIR JOSEPH HOOKER'S ADDRESS. 423 



permanence of continents and the great oceans. . . . When 

 I read the * Challenger s ' conclusion that sediment from the 

 land is not deposited at greater distances than 200 to 300 

 miles from the land, I was much strengthened in my old be- 

 lief. Wallace seems to me to have argued the case excellent- 

 ly. Nevertheless, I would speak, if I were in your place, 

 rather cautiously ; for T. Mellard Reade has argued lately 

 with some force against the view ; but I cannot call to mind 

 his arguments. If forced to express a judgment, I should 

 abide by the view of approximate permanence since Cambrian 

 days. 



5. The extreme importance of the Arctic fossil-plants, is 

 self-evident. Take the opportunity of groaning over [our] 

 ignorance of the Lignite Plants of Kerguelen Land, or any 

 Antarctic land. It might do good. 



6. I cannot avoid feeling sceptical about the travelling of 

 plants from the North except during the Tertiary period. It 

 may of course have been so and probably was so from one 

 of the two poles at the earliest period, during Pre-Cambrian 

 ages ; but such speculations seem to me hardly scientific see- 

 ing how little we know of the old Floras. 



I will now jot down without any order a few miscellaneous 

 remarks. 



I think you ought to allude to Alph. De Candolle's 

 great book, for though it (like almost everything else) 

 is washed out of my mind, yet I remember most distinctly 

 thinking it a very valuable work. Anyhow, you might 

 allude to his excellent account of the history of all culti- 

 vated plants. 



How shall you manage to allude to your New Zealand 

 and Tierra del Fuego work ? if you do not allude to them you 

 will be scandalously unjust. 



The many Angiosperm plants in the Cretacean beds of 

 the United States (and as far as I can judge the age of these 

 beds has been fairly well made out) seems to me a fact of 

 very great importance, so is their relation to the existing flora 

 of the United States under an Evolutionary point of view. 



